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Shokai

We are All Connecdted

As you Drive through the city of Tottori on the north shore of Japan's Honshu Island just before dusk, you see Squid Fishermen preparing their boats equipped with huge Arc lights that attract the squid, to set sail for a night of work. Ten or fifteen miles down the road you stop and set up camp and before long it is pitch black except for a few million glittering stars and the glow on the horizon from a hundred or so of those fishing boats moored together two miles off shore in the Japan Sea. Imagine lying in your tent close to the beach, a gentle breeze causing waves to lap at the shoreline and the constant low drone of the boat's generators which power the lights. Once in a while, you catch the soft refrain of the fishermen's voices singing karaoke.
During this adventure it is not difficult to appreciate the concept of the butterfly effect. How an infinitesimal movement of wings can set up a ripple that is heard/felt around the world. There is a tale about the Deva Indra who has a net reaching every corner of the entire universe. At each intersection of the strands in this net is a jewel assigned to each and every dharma in creativity, including every being; for example, you and I. With the proper angle of perception/reflection each of these jewels sparkle with light. But, the essence of this analogy is that we are all connected.
Once every year ( or as it was recently suggested, every full moon) we get out our books to review and study our Bodhisattva precepts. Or perhaps, we recite the Heart Sutra along with our daily zazen; and maybe even the Kaikyoge:

The incomparably profound and minutely subtle Dharma
Is hardly met with in a hundred, thousand, million eons.
We now can listen to it, hear it and hold it.
May we completely understand the Tathagata's true meaning.

It is very fitting and beneficial to have such a ritual. It is difficult to explain why in words but, it is something that reminds us of the depth and mystery of the Dharma we share and connects us with all things. The thing I like to do every so often is to change my angle of reflection to optimize the sparkle of my jewel. It helps to keep me grounded.

仁道 生開 - Jindo Shokai "Open to life in a benevolent way"Just another itinerant monk; go somewhere else to listen to someone who really knows.